false 6689 0375814248 9780375814242 27287 726 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165604306m/6689.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6689.James_and_the_Giant_Peach 4273 Roald Dahl 226892 10451 3 0 false Thu May 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri May 29 06:55:27 -0700 2009 Fri Jun 19 06:55:32 -0700 2009
In this case, James's parents were killed by a rhinoceros and he's living with this nasty Aunt Spiker and nastier Aunt Sponge. One day James is given some magic ...things by a stranger and after spilling them at the base of a peach tree he awakes the next morning to find a gigantic peach growing in his back yard. So he hops inside, meets some talking bugs, and rolls away to America. Well, actually he flies through the kingdom of the cloud people, first.

So, yeah, it's fanciful and silly, but it's clearly a children's book. It's very much got the feel of something made up on the fly, and I could imagine Dahl narrating the story off the top of his head and then going back to jot it down. My 5-year old daughter Samantha loved it, though, and it marks the beginning of her transition from books whose pages are dominated by pictures to ones where pictures only appear every few pages. Sam was enamored by the bug friends James meets in the peach, and I have to admit that I liked them too, particularly the bickering duo of the Earthworm and the Centipede. The pacing was also really quick, with one thing happening after another without dwelling on descriptions or dialog too much. About the only thing I didn't care for were the poems/songs that cropped up occasionally, but I could skim those. So all in all it makes for a good book for kids around her age or for older kids learning to read to themselves. So does Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, also by Dahl.]]>